Deeplinks Blog posts about Copyright Trolls

Notorious copyright litigation company Righthaven got another smack down from the Federal bench today, in Righthaven v. Hoehn. In line with Judge Roger Hunt’s decision last week, Judge Phillip Pro held that Righthaven did not own the copyright at issue, and – even if it did – the use in question was protected by the fair use doctrine. Importantly, Judge Pro rejected Righthaven's last minute attempt to save its business model by revising its contract with Stephens Media (the publisher of the Las Vegas Review Journal).

Last Friday, the federal district court in Nevada held that the non-profit organization Center for Intercultural Organizing’s posting of a copyrighted news article was a non-infringing fair use. The well-reasoned opinion sets a powerful precedent for fair use and against copyright trolling.

The newspaper article at issue was originally published by Stephens Media’s Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper. Per its standard practice, copyright troll Righthaven LLC found it online and entered into a scheme with Stephens Media, under which the publisher purportedly assigned the right to sue to Righthaven. The litigation factory would then carry on the litigation at its own expense, splitting any proceeds with Stephens Media (less expenses).

Last Friday, the Chief Judge of the federal court in Nevada, which is overseeing more than 200 Righthaven copyright cases, dismissed Righthaven's meritless claim to seize its victim's domain names. In each case so far, Righthaven contended that the mere hosting of any infringing material means that the entire domain name was forfeit to the copyright troll. Chief Judge Hunt rejected that claim, explaining that the "Court finds that Righthaven’s request for such relief fails as a matter of law and is dismissed."

Last night, Righthaven filed a new copyright case in Nevada federal court, and - guess what? - demanded forfeiture of the domain name. Indeed, unable to take "you're wrong as a matter of law" for an answer, Righthaven upped the ante, and asked the Court to: